“The Lion” a solo exhibition by Mohamed Abouelnaga at ADC Contemporary Art Gallery / FACTORY PLACE ARTS COMPLEX in Downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, CA- ADC Contemporary Art Gallery and SAATCHI ONLINE sponsored by Turkish Airlines presents “The Lion” an amazing exhibit from Egypt, Cairo by the artist Mohamed Abouelnaga.
The exhibition will run from May 28th to June. Opening Reception May 28th. 7 pm. with the artist .
This exhibition shows two related phases: the lion before the revolution with video, photos, calligraphy, and a compilation of images and songs from Cairo, Egypt, during the recent revolution.

The concept of “The Lion”, the main protagonist of this installation, was conceived in 2008 to convey the artist's feeling of being locked inside a narrow cage and enshrouded in scrolls like a mummy.
These were feelings of frustration, sadness, and loneliness.
When the lion, king of the jungle, the bravest animal, is slavishly locked inside a cage, his eyes still shine, craving for freedom.
The Lion installation not only reflects a personal vision, but symbolizes the common experience of the people of Egypt, their desire for freedom and their dreams of a better future.
The artist could never imagine that, two years after the presentation of this installation, the lion would really break out of the cage to fight for freedom. His spirit and courage exploded during the recent revolution Egypt, carried out by young and old people alike. The revolution took place few months after he took a curatorial work in Doha,Qatar, for that reason he was far from home. He could only watch it through the media: television, internet, newspapers, etc.

Yet, he lived and felt the revolution, just like an expatriate who was forced into exile. Far from his friends and family, he listened to the music and the songs of the revolution, while witnessing the violence and bloodshed across Tahrir Square.
The Lion has always carried a strong symbolic value in our culture: in books, in folk songs, as well as in liberal and patriotic songs.
Some tribes took the name of lions, such as Beni Assad and Ghadanfar. For our culture, the image of the lion represents fearlessness and valiancy. "Be a lion", so that all animals would fear you.
For Abouelnaga, the lion survived a long time within his inner self.
It might be a desperate call for a new, powerful life. Mixing two images that carry a strong symbolic value in Egyptian culture, the artist visualizes a lion bounded up like a mummy, one that will resurrect. Constrained by wires, his faced masked, the image of the lion juxtaposes powerful sacred and religious meanings, including those related to Horus, the guardian of heaven, or Anobis, the guardian of the dead.
The lion is the artist's childhood idol, which developed within his inner self.
It never crossed his mind that he would be able to live in such a moment of opposition between the “self-lion” that inhabits his imagination, and the other lion that belongs to the popular imaginary.
A defeated lion in its cage, lonely and submissive; a body with no hope,
yawning lazily like a sleepy cat. However, one can catch a glimpse of the fear generated by a history of oppression and lack of opportunities, a feeling that can startle those who stare into it. A profound gaze that looks into the future, searching for a new life. A life that, nonetheless, is still frightful and unknown.
Born in the Egyptian city of Tanta, Abouelnaga studied art and received his PhD in art philosophy in 1997. He was the first Middle Eastern artist to receive a grant from the Japan Foundation to study the arts of papermaking. In the past two decades, Abouelnaga made several solo shows in Egypt and around the world that varied between painting, video and installation. He also represented Egypt in the Venice Biennial 2002 and received the First Prize of the Alexandria Biennial in 2001. In 2009, he was assigned to become the curator of the 25th Alexandria Biennial for Mediterranean Countries that will open December 17, 2009.

About ADC Contemporary Art Gallery
The gallery is now located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles ARTS DISTRICT at the FACTORY PLACE ARTS COMPLEX .The Gallery established in 2005, is dedicated to the promotion of national and international contemporary artists, with an appreciable number of renowned artists which are well appraised by international established collectors, providing also quality and affordable original art for emerging collectors.
The gallery is recognized internationally for their variety of International Art Exchanges, art residences and workshops.